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Belair National Park, VKFF-022, Australia Day

The SA brochure relating to this park is entitled Belair National Park: From Government Farm to National Park. The Park conserves both natural and built environments. It began life in 1840 when Governor Gawler established a farm for the purposes of grazing Government owned stock, for example, Police horses. In 1859 a cottage was built for the Governor, Sir Richard MacDonnell, and is now preserved as ‘Old Government House’. This building is open to the public on Sundays and public holidays, and as the brochure states, ‘provides an insight into the lifestyle of South Australia’s former gentry’. ‘In 1981, the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service was born, with the dedication of Belair National Park’.

A trap for a young or not so young player!

Today I went back to Belair National Park to try and reach the magic number of 44 contacts, so as to qualify the Park for the WWFF award. Belair National Park is a gated park and the gates are opened at 0830 and close at 1700 hours local time, that is, if you want to drive your car into the park. I was at the Park at 0700 hours local and walked into one of our usual operating spots about 300 metres from the boundary. There is a pedestrian gate at this point, near Waverley Lodge. This house is occupied by a ranger I know. I went quietly, not because what I was doing was wrong, but I simply did not want to wake up the household! It took me two trips to carry all of my gear, including a table, a chair and my FT897, two batteries, an antenna, log, clock and rain-coat to the activation spot. I anticipated a long activation period and I didn’t want to sit on the ground! Here is the link to that activation https://vk5bje.com/2014/06/01/mount-lofty-vk5-se-005-cleland-conservation-park/ The weather forecast predicted a shower and it was raining very lightly while I was setting up. I turned on the radio only to be greeted by noise over strength nine. This noise was a loud pulsing racket! The audio DSP settings on the FT897 were useless! To operate in these conditions would be impossible. Why was there noise? Well there is a major transmission line nearby. But I and others have operated here before without any difficulties. My theory is as follows: in the past this spot has been used for winter activations and the insulators are probably washed clean. While Adelaide has had some rain recently it appears not enough to dampen down the noise! I was hoping to work some DX as I was set up ready to go at 2100 hours UTC! So I packed everything away, once again making two trips, and trying not to make too much noise. I then drove around to the main gates and travelled to Long Gully where I activated the Park last Australia Day. Here is the link to that activation: https://vk5bje.com/2014/01/26/australia-day-january-26th-2014-belair-national-park/ The light rain soon stopped and I succeeded in making 23 contacts. I could not spot myself as there was not enough signal on my phone at this point.

It was an interesting day for propagation. I thought for a while this might be my first VK5 activation without any VK5 contacts! It was only later in the morning that any near city stations were readable. For example, I knew that VK5HCF was active at Piccaninnie Ponds Conservation Park, but it was half an hour into the activation before we successfully made contact. At the same time VK3 stations were loud and clear. VK3PF/P7 at Narawntapu National Park, VKFF-005, was worked at 22:31z and it was 23:15z before I had a contact with VK5PAS/P5 at VK5/SE – 016. While all this was happening I heard snippets of RTTY and two US SSB stations. The US voice stations were 5 and 8 to 9, but they were quickly gone! Other operators also made similar comments about the propagation.